Democracy Now!

A documentary film "The Pollinators" tells the story of the world's yellow-black jacketed honey bees, whose existence may determine the future of human survival. The insects pollinate nearly all the fruits, vegetables and nuts we consume, and some experts estimate one out of every three bites of food we eat depends on the work of honey bees. However, the future of the insects is now in peril with widespread reports of bee colony collapses. In the last decade and a half, beekeepers have reported staggering declines in their bee populations due to pesticides, parasites and loss of habitat. Scientists warn climate change is also threatening the insects' survival, noting bees could die off at faster rates as the Earth warms. For more about the crisis of bee population decline, we're joined by Peter Nelson, director of "The Pollinators," cinematographer and beekeeper.

The U.S. Department of Justice has charged two former Twitter employees with helping Saudi Arabia spy on thousands of the kingdom's critics. Ali Alzabarah and Ahmad Abouammo are accused of giving the Saudi government detailed information about users, including telephone numbers and email addresses linked to the accounts, as well as internet protocol addresses that could be used to identify a user's location. The charges are being filed just over a year after the brutal murder of Saudi journalist and critic Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed inside the Saudi Consulate in Turkey. A new report by Human Rights Watch finds that one year after Khashoggi's brutal murder Saudi Arabia continues to arbitrarily detain countless activists, regime critics and clerics. The report says there is a "darker reality" behind Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's widely touted initiatives for Saudi women and youth, including mass arrests of women activists, some of whom have allegedly been sexually assaulted and tortured with electric shocks. We speak with Adam Coogle, Middle East researcher at Human Rights Watch.

In Algeria, protests against corruption, the jailing of opposition leaders and the army's powerful role in national politics have entered their ninth month. Tens of thousands filled the streets of the capital Algiers last Friday to mark the 65th anniversary of the war of independence from France and to demand a "new revolution" rather than an upcoming election they say will be rigged. Over 100 student protesters were arrested last night as the Algerian government intensified its crackdown on demonstrators ahead of the upcoming polls. Interim President Abdelkader Bensalah announced the country will hold a presidential election on December 12. This comes after longtime President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned in April following weeks of protests. We speak with Mehdi Kaci, an Algerian-American activist who organized a protest last weekend in San Francisco in support of Algerians, and Daikha Dridi, a journalist based in Algiers. "There is a political uprising, but there is also a huge sense of pride, of self-love, that the Algerian people are experiencing," Dridi says. "The Algerians are wanting a much, much deeper change, and they're not going back home."

Televised Impeachment Hearings Begin Next Week, Sessions to Run for Old Senate Seat; Pressley Endorses Warren, Trump Expands Military Mission in Syria Aimed at Controlling Oil Fields, Esper to Urge Trump Not to Intervene in Cases of Soldiers Accused of Murder, Judge Voids Trump Rule Allowing Medical Workers to Deny Care on Religious Grounds, ProPublica: Pence's Office Meddled in Foreign Aid Money to Favor Christians, DOJ Charges Ex-Twitter Employees; California Investigates Facebook, New Zealand Approves Landmark Climate Legislation Aimed at Zero Carbon Emissions, U.S.-Manufactured Ammunition Used in Massacre of Mormon Family in Mexico, Immigration Activist Marco Saavedra Heads to Final Asylum Hearing, New York's WBAI Back on Air with Local Programming

Results are coming in after Tuesday's elections, with major wins for Democrats in several crucial states. In Virginia, the party gained control of both legislative houses for the first time in 25 years. In Kentucky, Democratic challenger state Attorney General Andy Beshear has ousted Trump-backed Republican incumbent Matt Bevin in a tightly contested run for governor. In Mississippi, Republican Lieutenant Governor Tate Reeves defeated Democratic state Attorney General Jim Hood in the governor's race.Several local candidates across the country made history. In Scranton, Pennsylvania, Paige Cognetti was elected as the first woman mayor after running as an independent despite being a registered Democrat. She'll also be the first mayor-elect to give birth. Her child is due in December. Ghazala Hashmi became the first Muslim woman elected to the Virginia Senate after winning a suburban Richmond district. And Danica Roem made history for a second time, becoming the first out transgender person to win reelection to a state legislature, after defeating an anti-LGBT Republican candidate to represent the 13th District in the Virginia House of Delegates.Tuesday's election also decided several important state ballot initiatives. Voters in New York City approved ranked-choice voting, a measure supporters say will help underrepresented voters and candidates of color. In Jersey City, voters approved strict regulations on short-term rentals, in a major blow to Airbnb. A measure to make Tucson, Arizona, a sanctuary city was overwhelmingly defeated by voters there.We speak with John Nichols, a political writer for The Nation.

The state of Texas is facing growing calls to halt the upcoming execution of Rodney Reed, an African-American man who has spent over 20 years on death row for a rape and murder he says he did not commit. A group of 26 Texas lawmakers — including both Democrats and Republicans — have written a letter this week to Governor Greg Abbott to stop the execution planned for November 20. More than 1.4 million people have signed an online petition to save Reed's life. Supporters include celebrities Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna and Meek Mill. Reed was sentenced to die after being convicted of the 1996 murder of a 19-year-old white woman, Stacey Stites, with whom he was having an affair. But since Reed's trial, substantial evidence has emerged implicating Stites's then-fiancé, a white police officer named Jimmy Fennell, who was later jailed on kidnapping and rape charges in another case. In a major development, a man who spent time in jail with Fennell signed an affidavit last month asserting that Fennell had admitted in prison that he had killed his fiancée because she was having an affair with a black man. We speak with Rodney Reed's brother Rodrick Reed, his sister-in-law Uwana Akpan and lawyer Bryce Benjet of the Innocence Project.

Democrats Take Virginia Legislature & Beat Trump-Backed Governor in Kentucky, NYC Approves Ranked-Choice Voting; Tucson Voters Reject Sanctuary City Measure, JPMorgan CEO Accuses Warren of "Vilifying" Richest Americans, Sondland Now Says There Was Quid Pro Quo on Ukraine, Scientists: Humanity Risks "Untold Suffering" from Climate Change, Brazilians Protest the Largest Oil Auction in Brazilian History, Activists Arrested After Blockading Port of Vancouver in Pipeline Protest, 9 Members of Mormon Family Murdered in Mexico, Pro-Beijing Lawmaker Stabbed in Hong Kong, Israeli Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Expelling Human Rights Watch Official, Zuckerberg Meets with Civil Rights Leaders Amid Facebook Controversies

As local elections take place nationwide, voters in Colorado are enjoying greater access to the ballot than ever as the state's vote-by-mail system allows residents to bypass long lines at polling places. The state also has voting measures which include automatic voter registration with driver's license services, an extension of the vote to parolees, and allowance for some 17-year-olds to vote in primary elections. Colorado is considered an example for states needing to expand voter access at a time when Republican legislatures and statehouses across the country are attempting to suppress the vote. We speak with Jena Griswold, Colorado's secretary of state, who says that Colorado has "the highest percentage of eligible citizens registered to vote, and our participation rates are often the first or second for the entire nation."

Voters across the U.S. head to the polls today for statewide elections that will be seen as a measure of Donald Trump's influence in the Republican Party as he faces an impeachment inquiry. In New York City, a major ballot measure could change the way voters select their candidates in future elections. New Yorkers will decide whether to move from electing candidates by a plurality of votes to ranked-choice voting, a system in which voters rank their favorite candidates in order and the person with the most top-ranked votes wins. Proponents of the initiative say it will help underrepresented voters and candidates of color. Maya Wiley, senior vice president for social justice and professor of public and urban policy at The New School, joins us for a discussion of the ranked-choice voting system, which she says is about "voters having more choice on who gets elected into public office."

Tania Romero, an undocumented mother from Honduras and survivor of stage IV cancer, is fighting to remain in the United States with her four children. Two months ago, Romero was imprisoned by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the privately owned Irwin County Detention Center in Georgia, interrupting her life-saving medical treatments. In mid-August, Romero was pulled over for a minor traffic infraction and arrested for not having a driver's license. Tania Romero's attorney requested a stay of deportation on humanitarian grounds because of her fragile health, but it was denied in September. Her son, Cristian Padilla Romero, is organizing against her deportation, with a petition demanding his mother's release with over 30,000 signatures. We speak with Cristian Padilla Romero, a Ph.D. student in Latin American history at Yale University and a Honduran immigrant with DACA status.

The Trump administration notified the United Nations Monday that it would withdraw the U.S. from the historic Paris climate agreement, starting a year-long process to leave the international pact to fight the climate crisis. The United States — the world's largest historic greenhouse gas emitter — will become the only country outside the accord. Trump's announcement of the withdrawal came on the first day possible under the agreement's rules. From Middlebury, Vermont, we speak with Bill McKibben, co-founder of 350.org. "The decision of the United States to be the only country on Earth … unwilling to take part in a global attempt at a solution to the greatest crisis we've ever faced — there's a lot to be ashamed of in the Trump years and a lot of terrible things that have happened — it's pretty hard to top that," says McKibben.

U.S. Formalizes Withdrawal from Historic Paris Climate Agreement, Democrats Begin to Release Impeachment Inquiry Transcripts, Voters Head to the Polls for Statewide Elections Today, E. Jean Carroll, Who Accuses Trump of Raping Her, Sues President for Defamation, Court Rejects Trump's Efforts to Fight NY Subpoena for Tax Returns, Trump Threatens to Cut Off Federal Funding for California's Wildfires, Thousands of Academics Demand Chile End Violent Crackdown Against Protests, Iraqi Authorities Cut Internet Access Amid Ongoing Anti-Government Protests, Two Indonesian Journalists Found Dead at Illegal Palm Oil Plantation, Thousands Protest in Spain over Verdict in Gang Rape of Teenage Girl, U.N. Warns Migration Land Route Across Africa Twice as Deadly as Mediterranean, Turkish Officials Say They've Captured Sister of Slain Former ISIS Leader, Judge Dismisses Uber's Challenge of NYC's Effort to Limit Ride-Hailing Apps, UnitedHealth Faces Probe over Racial Discrimination in Its Algorithm, FBI Arrests Man Allegedly Planning to Bomb Colorado Synagogue, Oklahoma: 462 Prisoners Freed in Largest Single-Day Commutation in U.S. History

Hundreds gathered this weekend to mark the 40th anniversary of the Greensboro massacre, when 40 Ku Klux Klansmen and American Nazis opened fire on an anti-Klan demonstration in Greensboro, North Carolina, killing five anti-racist activists in a span of 88 seconds. Those killed were members of the Communist Workers' Party. Ten other activists were injured. No one was convicted in the massacre, but a jury did find the Greensboro police liable for cooperating with the Ku Klux Klan in a wrongful death. Local pastors in Greensboro are now calling on the City Council to issue an apology for the events that led to the 1979 killing. We speak with Dr. Marty Nathan, the widow of Dr. Mike Nathan, who was killed in the 1979 Greensboro Massacre.

Amid skyrocketing housing prices and rising inequality, the number of unhoused people across California is booming. Homelessness in San Francisco has spiked at least 30% since 2017. In Oakland, it's grown by nearly 50%. As more people have been forced onto the streets, encampments have popped up from Los Angeles to the Bay Area and in other city centers. But while advocates push for more affordable housing solutions, instead city governments have been cracking down on unhoused people with increasingly punitive measures that criminalize homelessness. In a special report, Democracy Now! traveled to San Francisco to speak with unhoused people and their advocates about conditions there.

An indigenous forest protector named Paulo Paulino Guajajara was shot dead in the Amazon by illegal loggers on Saturday. It is the latest incident in a wave of violence targeting indigenous land protectors since the election of Brazil's far-right President Jair Bolsonaro last year. Guajajara was killed when he and another forest protector were ambushed by a group of illegal loggers inside the Araribóia reservation in the northeastern state of Maranhão. We speak with João Coimbra Sousa, a field coordinator and legal adviser for Amazon Watch, in São Luís in the northeastern state of Maranhão. And in San Francisco, we speak with Christian Poirier, program director at Amazon Watch.

Four White House Officials Refused to Testify in Impeachment Hearings, Turkish-Backed Forces Accused of War Crimes in Northern Syria, Sen. Warren Releases Details on Her Medicare for All Plan, Trump to Nominate Dr. Stephen Hahn to Lead FDA, EPA Slated to Roll Back Rules to Protect Waterways from Toxic Coal Ash, Group of Automakers Sides with Trump Admin in Fight over Fuel-Efficiency Standards, NYT: Major U.S.-Russia Nuclear Arms Treaty Could Expire Without Being Replaced, Mali: Over 50 Soldiers Killed in Attack on Military Post, Anti-Government Protests Continue to Sweep Iraq, Lebanon & Algeria, Brazilian Indigenous Leader Killed in Amazon, U.S. "Gag Rule" on Abortion Silences Popular Radio Host in Nepal, India: Toxic Smog Sparks Public Health Emergency in Delhi, German Officials Declare "Nazi Emergency" in Dresden, Milwaukee: Man Arrested in Alleged Anti-Immigrant Acid Attack, Saudi Aramco Plans to Go Public, Philadelphia Passes Domestic Workers' Bill of Rights, NYC: Protesters March Against Police Brutality in Subways, Nationals Pitcher Sean Doolittle Boycotts White House Visit in Protest Against Trump

The massacre of five Indigenous leaders in Colombia has shocked the country. The killings took place in the southwestern region of Cauca. Among the victims was Cristina Bautista, the leader of the semi-autonomous Indigenous reservation of Nasa Tacueyó. Four of the community's unarmed guards were also killed, while six others were wounded. A group of U.N. experts have denounced the massacre and demanded the Colombian government to take urgent measures in cooperation with Indigenous authorities to investigate the murders. Police have made no arrests and no suspects have been named in the massacre. Since the signing of the Peace Accords in 2016, at least 700 social leaders, mostly Afro-Colombian and Indigenous activists, have been murdered in Colombia, according to the Institute for Development and Peace Studies. We speak with Mario Murillo, Vice-Dean of the School of Communications at Hofstra University and award-winning journalist who has extensively reported on Colombia and the region of Cauca.

In Gambia, a former beauty queen who says the president raped her when she was 18 years old has testified before a public truth and reconciliation commission that is investigating the atrocities of former president Yahya Jammeh. Fatou "Toufah" Jallow has become a leading voice against the former president, who ruled the West African country of 2 million people for 22 years before his regime ended in 2017. Two other women have also come forward to accuse the former president of rape and sexual assault. Survivors of the regime have also testified during the hearings, which have been live streamed across the country. The investigation is part of an ongoing process to reckon with the horrors committed during Jammeh’s rule, including killing and disappearing hundreds of people, torture, unjustified jailings and sexual violence against women and girls. From Gambia, we speak with Fatou "Toufah" Jallow, along with attorney Reed Brody of Human Rights Watch, who is currently leading the prosecution of former Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh.

The end of the Chicago teachers’ strike comes amid a wave of labor movements, including the longest United Auto Workers strike in almost 50 years. We speak with labor journalist Sarah Jaffe about the historical importance of unions, the rise of worker participation in strike actions and the significance of the Labour Party’s organizing in the United Kingdom. Jaffe says workers “are fighting back in the face of decades and decades of concessions, decades and decades of give-backs,” and “understanding that unionizing is a way that they have power on the job.” She is the author of _Necessary Trouble: Americans in Revolt_.

Teachers in Chicago are heading back to school Friday, marking the end of a historic 11-day strike that had shut down the country's third-largest school district. After weeks of tense negotiations, the city agreed to reduce class sizes, increase salaries by 16% over the next five years and bring on hundreds more social workers, nurses and librarians. The union demanded that teachers be able to make up the full eleven days of school before agreeing to return to work and eventually settled with the city on five days. Earlier this week, 7,500 public school workers with the Service Employees International Union, who had been striking also settled with the city earlier. We speak with Stacy Davis Gates, the Executive Vice President of the Chicago Teachers Union, and labor journalist Sarah Jaffe.

House Votes to Formalize Impeachment Inquiry Into President Trump , Trump Will Avoid State Income Taxes After Declaring Florida Residency, CIA-Backed Afghan Forces Commit Atrocities, Says Human Rights Watch, Iraqi Prime Minister Offers to Resign Amid Anti-Government Protests, Thousands March in Argentina Against IMF-Imposed Austerity, Spain to Replace Chile as Host of COP25 U.N. Climate Conference, Rex Tillerson Denies Exxon Misled Investors Over Climate Risks, Greta Thunberg Turns Down Environment Prize for Her Climate Activism, New California Wildfire Burns Homes in San Bernardino, Keystone Pipeline Spill in North Dakota Leaked 383,000 Gallons of Oil, Rep. Katie Hill Blasts "Misogynistic Culture" in Final House Speech, Missouri Health Director Kept Spreadsheet of Women's Menstrual Cycles, Gambian Beauty Queen Testifies About Rape by Former President , Hong Kong Protesters Use Halloween to Defy Mask Ban, Jordan Recalls Ambassador to Israel After Jordanians Jailed Without Charge

The House of Representatives is holding a historic vote today to formalize the impeachment process against President Trump. The probe centers on whether Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Trump’s political rival Joe Biden and his son, Hunter, who served on the board of Burisma Holdings, a Ukrainian energy company. As the House votes today, lawmakers are continuing to question key Trump administration behind closed doors, including the top Russia official on the National Security Council, Tim Morrison. On Wednesday, House Democrats also requested that Trump’s former National Security Adviser John Bolton testify. We speak with California Congressmember Ro Khanna.

As climate-fueled fires rage across California, we look at how the blazes are disproportionately affecting some of the state's most vulnerable communities. As a growing number of wealthy homeowners hire private firefighters to protect their properties for up to $3,000 per day, domestic workers and gardeners who tend to some of the most opulent homes in Los Angeles attended work despite the Getty Fire evacuation order earlier this week. Many of their employers failed to even tell them not to come in. Meanwhile, of the more than 4,000 firefighters currently working across the state, at least 700 are California prisoners. They earn as little as $1 per hour. We speak with Amika Mota, a former prisoner firefighter and the policy director at the Young Women’s Freedom Center in San Francisco, and _Los Angeles Times_ journalist Brittny Mejia. Her piece is titled "Housekeepers and gardeners go to work despite the flames."

Extreme winds of up to 60 miles per hour caused new fires to erupt across southern California Wednesday, prompting tens of thousands to evacuate. The blazes are just the latest in a spate of climate change-fueled fires threatening the state. In Northern California, firefighters have finally beat back the Sonoma County Kincade Fire that had forced nearly 200,000 people to flee their homes over the weekend. Nearly all evacuees in the region have now been allowed to return to their homes and the utility giant Pacific Gas & Electric said Wednesday it would begin restoring power to the 365,000 customers who were plunged into darkness over the weekend as fires first erupted across the state. PG&E — the corporation that controls most of Northern and Central California's electricity and the biggest utility in America — has been implicated in many of the fires that have ravaged California in recent years, including the Camp Fire that killed 85 people and completely destroyed the town of Paradise in 2018. In January, PG&E declared bankruptcy amid a number of lawsuits related to the wildfires. We speak with California Congressmember Ro Khanna, who is calling for the California state government to take over control of PG&E. Khanna says, "PG&E is basically a private monopoly that gets a return on investment for their private investors, but has no competition. It is the worst of both worlds."

As a shocking new report finds that many coastal cities will be flooded by rising sea levels by 2050, Chile's President Sebastián Piñera announced Wednesday that the U.N. Climate Summit in Santiago has been canceled. Anti-inequality protests have entered their third week in the country with protesters calling for the Piñera government to resign. The U.N. said it is now looking for an alternative venue for the annual climate meetings. Meanwhile, a dire new report has warned 300 million people are at risk from rising sea levels, with the most vulnerable populations concentrated in the Global South. According to the study published in _Nature Communications_, global sea levels are expected to rise between two and seven feet or possibly more, with some coastal cities being wiped off the map. We speak with Harjeet Singh, the global lead on climate change for Action Aid who is based in New Delhi, India; and Benjamin Strauss, co-author of the study in Nature Communications and CEO and chief scientist at Climate Central.

Tens of Thousands Evacuate as New Blazes Erupt in Fire-Ravaged California, Chile Calls Off U.N. Climate Talks Amid Massive Protests Against Inequality, Protesters Confront JPMorgan Chase CEO Over Fossil Fuel Investments, Youth Climate Activists Stage Sit-In at House Speaker Pelosi's Office, Keystone Pipeline Breach Spills Oil in North Dakota, House Readies Vote to Formalize Impeachment Process, Top Immigration Official Grilled Over Move to Deport Critically Ill Immigrants, "Not Qualified" Rating from Bar Association Draws Tears from Judicial Nominee, India to Split Jammu and Kashmir Into Two Territories Controlled by New Delhi, Pentagon Releases Video Showing Raid on al-Baghdadi Compound, Philippines Island Rocked by Second Powerful Earthquake, Brazilian President Attacks Globo Over Report Linking Him to Marielle Franco's Murder, Colombia Deploys Troops After Five Indigenous Leaders Killed in Cauca, Twitter to Reject All Political Ads as Pressure Mounts Against Facebook, Pathologist Says Jeffrey Epstein Was Strangled to Death, U.K. Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn to Challenge PM Boris Johnson in Dec. 12 Election, Chicago Teachers Reach Tentative Contract but Continue Strike Over Lost Days

The new documentary "Decade of Fire" looks back at the history of a crisis that unfolded in New York City in the 1970s, when the South Bronx faced a near-constant barrage of fires that displaced almost a quarter million people and devastated an entire community. Co-directors and producers Vivian Vázquez Irizarry and Gretchen Hildebran tell the story of the government mismanagement, landlord corruption and redlining that lit the Bronx ablaze. They also describe how the community fought back to save their neighborhoods. The film airs next week on PBS.

Chesa Boudin is running for San Francisco district attorney as the latest candidate in a wave of decarceral prosecutors running for office across the United States. Bernie Sanders and other leading progressives have endorsed Boudin, who is a public defender and the child of Weather Underground activists Kathy Boudin and David Gilbert. His parents were imprisoned when Boudin was a toddler. These experiences have given him a first-hand view of "how broken our criminal justice system is," he says. "My earliest memories are going through steel gates and metal detectors just to see my parents, just to give them a hug." Boudin is running on a platform of ending cash bail and dismantling the War on Drugs, seeking to end "tough on crime" tactics and restore civil rights. Bay Area voters will cast their ballots Nov. 5.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri announced the resignation of his government on Tuesday following nearly two weeks of nationwide anti-government protests. In a televised address, al-Hariri said he had hit a "dead end" in resolving the crisis. Demonstrators “were congratulating each other while at the same time acknowledging that the struggle is very long,” says Lebanese journalist, Lara Bitar, who joins us from Beirut for an update. She says protesters have promised to stay in the streets until all of their demands are met, including the resignation of all top government officials, early parliamentary elections and the creation of a transitional cabinet of people unaffiliated with traditional political parties.

Vindman: White House Transcript of Trump Phone Call Omitted Key Words, Boeing CEO Grilled by Senate Lawmakers Over 737 MAX Failures, Lebanese Prime Minister Resigns Amid Massive Protests, Tens of Thousands Pour into Baghdad’s Tahrir Square as Iraq Protests Continue, Anti-Government Protests in Haiti Enter their Seventh Week, Ceasefire Between Turkey and Syrian Kurds in Northern Syria Expires, House Votes for Resolution to Recognize Armenian Genocide, Journalist Max Blumenthal Says He Was Arrested on False Charges, National Weather Service Issues "Extreme Red Flag Warning" over Fires, Protesters Slam BlackRock for Investing in Coal and Oil

In Chile, a new set of mass protests took place Monday as President Sebastián Piñera fulfilled the promise to appoint new members to his cabinet. As Piñera addressed the nation Monday, hundreds of protesters had already gathered outside the presidential palace in Santiago, waving flags, honking horns and demanding for Piñera's resignation. The reshuffling of his cabinet came after more than a million people flooded the streets last Friday in massive peaceful demonstrations over inequality, high cost of living and privatization. The protest drew more than 5% of Chile’s population and followed days of widespread civil unrest and a violent police and military crackdown across Chile. At least 18 people have died, with more than 1,000 more protesters shot and wounded since the mobilizations erupted Oct. 19. We speak with Pablo Abufom, a member of the Solidarity Movement, an anti-capitalist and feminist organization in Chile. His recent article published in Jacobin magazine is titled "It's Not About 30 Pesos. It's About 30 Years."

In Iraq, masked gunmen shot dead 18 protesters overnight and injured more than 800 people in the Shiite holy city of Karbala on Monday. Nearly 225 Iraqis have been killed since a wave of anti-government protests swept the country last month. The protesters in Karbala were attacked while they camped out in the city’s Education Square to protest corruption, lack of jobs and poor public services. Meanwhile in Baghdad, hospital officials said four people died during protests on Monday, while another 109 were injured. On Monday, the Iraqi Parliament met for the first time since the protests began. Lawmakers voted to dissolve provincial councils and cut the salaries of some high-ranking officials. But the influential Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr dismissed the measures as a "sham" and called on the Iraqi government to announce early parliamentary elections. We speak with Yanar Mohammed, president of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq.

California is bracing for a day of strong winds as climate change-fueled wildfires continue to burn from Los Angeles to north of the Bay Area. After a chaotic weekend of mass evacuations and blackouts that left millions in the dark, firefighters in Sonoma, California, made headway Monday, containing 15% of the massive Kincade fire that has burned nearly 75,000 acres. But as high winds pick up again today, firefighters still face an uphill battle in combating the at least 10 blazes raging across the state, including the growing Getty fire, which erupted in one of Los Angeles's most opulent communities Monday. Fires in California are typical this time of year, but the length and severity of the state's fire season has grown due to climate change. We speak with Leah Stokes, an assistant professor of political science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and researcher on climate and energy politics. We also speak with Ariel Kelley, the CEO of Corazón Healdsburg, a bilingual family resource center based in Northern Sonoma County.

Pentagon: U.S. Will Fight for Control of Oilfields in Syria, Ukraine Expert Who Listened to Trump Phone Call to Testify in Impeachment Hearings, Iraq: Death Toll from Month of Anti-Government Protests Tops 220, Trump Officials Join Industry Executives at Davos in Desert, Boeing CEO to Testify to Congressional Committees, Sanders Endorses Chesa Boudin for San Francisco District Attorney, Facebook Workers Call on Zuckerberg to Reverse Policy of Allowing Politicians to Lie in Ads, North Carolina Court Rules Against State’s Gerrymandered Congressional Maps, U.S. Extends Deportation Relief to Salvadorans to 2021, Mexican Woman Dies in Border Patrol Custody, France: Man Attempts to Set Fire to Mosque, Shoots and Wounds 2 People, 15 Children Sue Canada over Climate Change, Peru: Graduate Student Makes History by Writing and Defending Thesis in Quechua, Protesters Gather for Day of Outrage over Police Killings of Black Women

Chilean President Sebastián Piñera has announced a major cabinet shuffle after more than one million people flooded the streets Friday in massive peaceful demonstrations over inequality, high cost of living and privatization. The protest drew more than 5% of Chile's population and followed days of widespread civil unrest that sparked a violent police and military crackdown across the country. At least 18 people have been killed and hundreds more have been shot and wounded since protests erupted Oct. 19. The protests in Chile began in response to a subway fare hike and have grown into a mass uprising against the government. We speak with Professor Macarena Gómez-Barris, founder and director of the Global South Center and chairperson of Social Science and Cultural Studies at the Pratt Institute, and Alondra Carrillo Vidal, a spokesperson for Chile’s largest feminist advocacy group, Coordinadora Feminista 8M.

Tens of thousands of people in Lebanon joined hands on Sunday to form a human chain spanning north to south across the entire country. It was a symbolic display of unity across regional and sectarian divisions amid mass protests that have rocked the country in recent days. The protests sweeping Lebanon come amid a wave of similar anti-government protests in Iraq, Egypt and elsewhere in the Middle East. We speak with Rami Khouri, senior public policy fellow and journalist-in-residence at the American University of Beirut, and a columnist at The New Arab.

President Trump announced Sunday that ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed in a U.S. special forces raid on his compound in northwestern Syria. According to Trump, al-Baghdadi detonated an explosive vest he was wearing, killing himself and three of his children. The raid began early Sunday when eight U.S. military helicopters flew from a base near Erbil, Iraq, to northwestern Syria over airspace controlled by Syria and Russia. Baghdadi had led ISIS since 2010. In 2014, he proclaimed the creation of an Islamic State or caliphate during a speech in Mosul. At its peak, ISIS controlled a large swath of land across Syria and Iraq and maintained a force of tens of thousands of fighters recruited from more than 100 countries. The group also claimed responsibility for deadly attacks across five continents. We speak with three guests: Juan Cole, author and professor of history at the University of Michigan; Emma Beals, award-winning investigative journalist and researcher who has covered the Syrian conflict since 2012; and Rami Khouri, senior public policy fellow and journalist-in-residence at the American University of Beirut, and a columnist at The New Arab.

ISIS Leader al-Baghdadi Reportedly Dies in U.S. Raid in Syria, California Declares State of Emergency over Wildfires, Chile: Over One Million Take to Streets in Protest Against Inequality, Dozens Killed in Iraq Amid Latest Round of Anti-Government Protests, Lebanese Form Human Chain Across Country as Protests Continue, Alberto Fernandez Wins Argentine Election in Defeat for Right-Wing Incumbent, Brexit Deadline Extended Until Jan. 31, Trump Booed, Taunted at World Series Game, Pentagon Hands Microsoft a $10 Billion Contract, Chicago Teachers Strike Continues, While Support Staff Reach Tentative Deal, UAW and General Motors Finalize Deal to End 40-Day Strike, Congresswoman Katie Hill Resigns after Relationship with Campaign Aide, DACA Recipients Launch 16-Day March from NYC to Washington, Pittsburgh Residents Mark One Year Since Massacre at Tree of Life Synagogue, Obama Praises Elijah Cummings at Funeral for Late Congressman, Longtime Michigan Congressman John Conyers Jr. Dies at 90

In a _Democracy Now!_ special report, we look at the rise in homelessness in many major cities across the United States. California has become the poster-child for this economic and humanitarian disaster, with growing encampments in Los Angeles and the Bay Area as more people are forced onto the streets. The state is home to 12% of the country’s population but half of the country’s unsheltered people. As the crisis deepens, so has the criminalization of homelessness, with increasing efforts by city and state officials to crack down on unhoused people occupying public space. President Donald Trump made headlines this month for attacking California's politicians over the homelessness crisis, threatening to destroy encampments, increase police enforcement and even jail unhoused people. But advocates say California has already employed hostile policies that criminalize homelessness, from laws against unsheltered people sitting on sidewalks to frequent sweeps of the encampments that have popped up on thoroughfares and under freeways across the state's cities. One of these crackdowns is currently unfolding at a massive Oakland encampment that Democracy Now! visited just a few weeks ago.

We feature more highlights from the five-hour grilling of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week on Capitol Hill, where Michigan Congressmember Rashida Tlaib said she feared that far-right hate groups were using Facebook event pages to incite violence against Muslims and other minorities — including death threats directed at her office. Tlaib asked to be seen not only as a Congresswoman, but also as "a mother that is raising two Muslim boys in this pretty dark time in our world." Meanwhile, California Congressmember Katie Porter pinned Zuckerberg down on Facebook’s privacy policies. “You are arguing in federal court that in a consumer data privacy lawsuit, in which your own lawyers admit that users’ information was stolen, that the plaintiffs fail to articulate any injury,” Porter said. “In other words, no harm, no foul. Facebook messed up, but it doesn’t matter. Is that your position?”

This week, as Facebook said it will not fact check political ads or hold politicians to its usual content standards, the social media giant's CEO Mark Zuckerberg was grilled for more than five hours by lawmakers on Capitol Hill on the company's policy of allowing politicians to lie in political advertisements, as well as its role in facilitating election interference and housing discrimination. We play highlights from New York Congressmember Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Ohio Congressmember Joyce Beatty, who asked Zuckerberg about Facebook's record on civil rights, which she called “appalling and disgusting.” Beatty said the company “should have known better” and might have if “you had real diversity and inclusion on your team.”

In Georgia, a federal grand jury on Thursday found seven Catholic peace activists guilty on three felony counts and a misdemeanor charge for breaking into the Kings Bay Naval Submarine Base on April 4, 2018. The activists, known as the Kings Bay Plowshares 7, entered the base armed with hammers, crime scene tape, baby bottles containing their own blood, and an indictment charging the U.S. government with crimes against peace. The base is home to at least six nuclear ballistic missile submarines, each of which carries 20 Trident thermonuclear weapons. The activists said they were following the prophet Isaiah's command to “beat swords into plowshares.” At this week's trial, the defendants were barred from citing their religious motivations or from mounting a "necessity defense" saying that their lawbreaking was necessary to prevent the far greater crime of a nuclear war. The activists will be sentenced within the next 90 days. They face more than 20 years in prison.

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Republican lawmakers stormed a closed hearing room Wednesday, disrupting the House impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump and delaying a Pentagon official's testimony. In an extraordinary chain of events, dozens of Republican congressmembers pushed into a secure hearing room as Laura Cooper, the U.S. defense official who oversees Ukraine and Russia matters, was due to testify. A five-hour stand-off ensued. The spectacle unfolded one day after Tuesday's explosive testimony by William Taylor, the top U.S. diplomat in Ukraine. Taylor told congressional lawmakers that the Trump administration held up $391 million in aid to Ukraine for the purpose of pushing Ukraine to incriminate Trump's political rivals, particularly presidential candidate former Vice President Joe Biden. We go to Capitol Hill to speak with Mitch Jeserich, the host of Letters & Politics heard on KPFA and Pacifica Radio. And we speak with retired colonel and Vietnam War veteran Andrew Bacevich, co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

President Trump has announced sanctions will be lifted on Turkey as a ceasefire remains in place in northern Syria, where Turkey invaded earlier this month after Trump withdrew U.S. troops. On Tuesday Turkey reached an agreement with Russia that would force Syrian Kurdish forces to retreat from a wide swath of the Syrian-Turkish border. The United Nations is reporting Turkey's offensive in northern Syria has displaced over 176,000 people, including nearly 80,000 children. The Turkish assault also led to a number of former ISIS fighters escaping from jail in northern Syria. We speak with Andrew Bacevich, co-founder of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and author of several books. He is Professor Emeritus of International Relations and History at Boston University. "I think in any discussion of our wars, ongoing wars, it's important to set them in some broader historical context," Bachevich says. "To a very great extent, we created the problems that exist today through our reckless use of American military power."

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Facebook continues to face growing criticism and demands that it be broken up. Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren has repeatedly called for Facebook and other big tech companies to be broken up on antitrust grounds. Roger McNamee, a Silicon Valley investor who went from being an early supporter of Facebook to a vocal critic, speaks with us about 2020 candidates' platforms on big tech. Antitrust regulation is "the one issue that seems to cut across the entire political spectrum," McNamee says. "People of all political stripes understand that there's a problem here."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies on Capitol Hill Wednesday, where he is expected to face questioning about the company's cryptocurrency Libra, among other issues. Zuckerberg has faced scrutiny before, including for Facebook's role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. A former mentor of Zuckerberg and longtime Silicon Valley investor Roger McNamee speaks out about the company's dismissal of Russian interference in the election. "They treated it like a PR problem, not a business issue," McNamee says.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is testifying Wednesday on Capitol Hill as his company’s actions face escalating criticism. The focus of today's House Financial Services Committee hearing is on Facebook's plan to launch a cryptocurrency called Libra that would reshape the world's financial system. Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Letitia James announced Tuesday that her probe of Facebook for violating antitrust regulations is now backed by attorneys general from 47 states and territories. Facebook is also facing criticism from several Democratic presidential candidates for refusing to ban political ads from candidates containing false information. We speak with Roger McNamee, a former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg and early investor in Facebook, who has since become one of the company's most vocal critics. His recent book is titled, “Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe.”

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